Category: Castle
Worthy opponent: Andrew Colunga
Gypsies in the Palace..er, um….Castle.
Welcome fair maidens and courageous knights, I am Sir Snake, the caretaker of the castle while King Sigismund is away on a very important quest. While he is away I have taken it upon myself to call a gathering of The Order of the Sleepless Knights to assume the throne for a few nights of debauchery and tomfoolery.

Let me introduce you to some of the members of The Order who have joined us this evening….

The Court Jester has taken his place at the head of the table and has named himself the Master of Ceremonies. I think he may have even taken the liberty of filling the King’s chalice for himself…who’s laughing now?!

The Ladies of the palace have joined us as well and are looking quite stunning this evening.
Oh my...

Lucan, I do say, what are you doing?

Well, the good stuff’s in the closet, I swear the King won’t mind! Heck, we’ll just shoot the lock off, I do it all the time.

Brilliant! Now things are getting interesting.

I see Sir Girflet has assumed the role of the King for the evening.

Sir Girflet, you do look quite regal in that crown!

Yikes! Sir Vlad is getting a bit out of hand over there with that sword… Well my friends, I must leave you now to join the rest of the Order and save someone from being "dubbed" by Vlad! I hope you enjoyed your time with us…the Gypsies in the Palace.

Long live The Order – Long live the Parrotheads!

SOME NOTES: After talking to Dave this morning and explaining some of the finer details of the MOC, he suggested that I create an addendum to my story...so here it goes.

I used a dragon motif specifically for The Order of the Dragon of which King Sigismund of Hungary was the founder. Among the ranks of The Order of the Dragon was Vlad III Dracula, better known as the Impaler...hence the sword/dubbing comment.

Lucan (better known as Sir Lucan the Butler) was a servant of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who also served as the wine steward Chretien de Troyes' Erec and Enide. I chose him to shoot the lock of the cabinet for obvious reasons.

Sir Girflet was the cousin of Lucan and was one of the Knights of the Round Table. I just liked his name and thought it would work well here.

And, if you're not a Jimmy Buffett fan, I'm sorry. The premise of the MOC was centered around the song Gypsies in the Palace. The line about shooting the lock off, the Order of the Sleepless Knights, and Snake are all direct references to the song.

Hopefully this adds a little more depth to the MOC -OH and I didn't intend for this to sway the judges, it was more for me to explain some of the finer details to those who are interested in the full back story to the MOC.

Sorry I'm late! Your build is excellent and you certainly staged the action perfectly. However, the complexity and playability of Andrew's build just edged you out. Although it doesn't really matter, I also give my vote to Andrew.

You were the builder I feared, seeing all he polishness of all you do, and your moc is sogreat! Every minifig seems so well planned out and the room so lush. (I showed my own dad this and he picked yours over mine : lol)
Tell Dave I said see you in 2 weeks and coins.

Sorry Stacy, but I’m gonna have to give my vote to your opponent. Your entry is great, filled with awesome little details and hidden meanings, but Andrew’s concept and execution was just to strong so I went with him. Feel free to walk up and slap me across the face at Brickworld ’09. And look at it this way…now you can help Dave with his entries! Ain’t nobody gonna beat you two working together. Wait…that’s not unfair to the other participants or anything…is it? ;-)

You must be hanging around Shannon Young these days (in case you haven't seen his Halloween tribute...the guy can throw a party!) Anyway, very nice build, and some fun commentary...and great job on the colors, by the way. Nevertheless, I think Andrew's got ya beat this time around. His exterior work on his castle was pretty competitive to begin with, but he had a ton of great interior work that, I feel, puts him over the top. Thanks for a great entry, though...now let's see what my fellow judges have to say.

I miss these kind of parties from when I was younger. I hardly see anyone get stabbed anymore, and I never see any women dancing on tables since I got banned from the strip club. You'd think that king would know better than to leave these guys on their own. good luck. see ya. garth

Simply awesome! I love this MOC and you even managed to work in a song by one of my favorite artists. If only I could join the Order of the Sleepless Knights. *sigh*
Oh, Makuta...do a search on YouTube for "Coral Reefer Band Play Gypsies in the Palace" and all will be explained. :-) Fins up!!!

Wow... A bunch of drunken knights. Original, I guess. I have a feeling that the title Sleepless Knights has something to do with a certain video about vegetables. Of course, I could be wrong. Good luck, Stacy!